South Lahontan

An Evaluation of California’s Adjudicated Groundwater Basins

University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) | October 1st, 2016

Groundwater is a critical resource in California, providing on average 30 percent of the state’s total water supply and significantly more during dry years. Many commu

Groundwater is a critical resource in California, providing on average 30 percent of the state’s total water supply and significantly more during dry years. Many communities rely exclusively on groundwater, and it is an essential back-up source of water during droughts when pumping increases significantly to compensate for reduced surface supplies. Local groundwater management agencies, special act districts, and court adjudications are the primary institutional arrangements to manage groundwater in California. Increasing groundwater declines in many areas of the state and concomitant negative impacts prompted the passage of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The SGMA established new requirements for 127 high- and medium-priority groundwater basins that are either in overdraft or vulnerable to overdraft to develop sustainable management programs with increased state oversight. The SGMA defines sustainable groundwater management as: “The management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without causing undesirable results.” Undesirable results include: chronic lowering of groundwater levels; significant and unreasonable reduction of groundwater storage; significant and unreasonable seawater intrusion, degraded water quality, and land subsidence; depletions of interconnected surface water that have significant and unreasonable adverse impacts on beneficial uses of the surface water. The SGMA exempts 388 basins categorized as low- and very-low priority, as well as all the adjudicated groundwater basins and 3 basins with pending groundwater adjudications. The SGMA was followed by the passage of Assembly Bill 1390 (AB 1390) and Senate Bill 226 (SB 226) in 2015 that provide some procedures for groundwater adjudications. In the adjudication of a groundwater basin, the court generally defines and determines water rights for all users and provides court-supervised basin management by a Watermaster, who is usually appointed by the court to ensure that the basin is managed in accordance with the court’s decree. Prior to adjudication, key stakeholders and users of the groundwater in a basin often negotiate a stipulation and physical solution to manage the basin, and the court can then accept it in whole or in part, or reject it and craft a different solution to manage the basin. There is limited analysis of the history and current condition of California’s adjudicated basins and the potential for future improvements to the adjudication process. This report for the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) evaluates all of California’s adjudicated basins with respect to sustainable groundwater management as defined in SGMA including: accomplishments, challenges, how management can be improved, and whether there are common elements that result in the sustainable management of an adjudicated groundwater basin.

An Evolutionary Theory of Administrative Law

Southern Methodist University | May 25th, 2018

Law evolves to accommodate change—this is axiomatic in most academic legal traditions. But in the era of the administrative state, with congressional gridlock and a jud

Law evolves to accommodate change—this is axiomatic in most academic legal traditions. But in the era of the administrative state, with congressional gridlock and a judiciary hesitant to address policy questions, evolution of statutory law has become much more difficult. This leads to pent up demand for change in legal regimes. If the legislature and the courts cannot provide an outlet for this pressure, where does it go? How does the law continue to change? Although other scholars have looked to agencies as engines of legal change, we lack a theoretical framework to understand how that change happens. I argue that an evolutionary framework provides an informative framework for understanding administrative legal change. I provide three case studies that demonstrate the administrative evolution of the Endangered Species Act. In spite of tremendous advances in conservation, fundamental changes in scientists’ understanding of human impacts on the natural world, and increasingly strident clashes over private property rights and endangered species, the Act has remained largely unchanged for the last 35 years. In a functioning legislative system, the Act would have been amended to accommodate many of these changes. Instead, the case studies show a mechanism of legal change through agency action analogous to the mechanisms underlying biological evolution. Other commentators have argued the administrative state stymies evolution of the law, but this research contradicts that view. Applying an evolutionary framework to administrative actions creates a new theory of administrative evolution of the law, placing administrative analysis within the long tradition of evolutionary approaches to legal change used by commentators from Aristotle to Holmes. In contrast to traditional normative theories of administrative law, an evolutionary approach focuses on how change progresses over time. This theory of administrative evolution of the law also casts new light on a host of normative questions, from the role of judicial review to improvements in agency decision-making. Considering administrative actions within the broader context of the legal evolution promises a fruitful new approach to analyzing administrative law.

An Update of the Death Valley Regional Groundwater Flow System Transient Model, Nevada and California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | October 31st, 2016

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has revised the regional-scale Death Valley regional groundwater flow system (DVRFS) numerical model with new data and interpretations s

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has revised the regional-scale Death Valley regional groundwater flow system (DVRFS) numerical model with new data and interpretations since the original numerical flow model was published in 2004 (Belcher (2004); re-published as Belcher and Sweetkind [2010]). Since the original publication of the DVRFS flow model, additional data have been collected and interpretations have been made. Cooperators such as the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Energy, and Nye County, Nevada, recognized a need to update the existing regional numerical flow model to maintain its viability as a groundwater management tool for regional stakeholders. For the purposes of this report, the version of the DVRFS numerical flow model documented in Belcher and Sweetkind (2010) and Faunt, Blainey, and others (2010) is designated as DVRFS v. 1.0. The updated version, as presented in this report, is referred to as DVRFS v. 2.0. Knowledge of basin water balances and the magnitude of interbasin groundwater flow is the basis for regional groundwater management and water-resource planning in the Great Basin of Nevada (Scott and others, 1971). Rapid population growth, arid conditions, and increased water use have led to development of available groundwater resources. Groundwater use in some alluvial-fill basins has resulted in continued water-level declines and land subsidence. Adjacent bedrock aquifers are increasingly being targeted for additional development. Such groundwater development may potentially impact local and regional water quantity and quality, existing water rights, and wildlife habitats. An understanding of hydrogeologic processes that control the rate and direction of groundwater flow in southern Nevada is necessary to assess the potential effects of any proposed large-scale groundwater development. Potential water-resource conflicts exist because of disparate interests in the region, particularly with respect to the development of groundwater resources to meet agricultural, municipal, and industrial water demand and the need to protect habitat for endangered and threatened species. Water demands in the Amargosa Farms area from agricultural and suburban development, and rapidly urbanizing areas in Las Vegas and Pahrump Valleys place increasing pressure on existing groundwater resources. In addition, several solar-energy facilities have been proposed within the Death Valley region; water demands for these facilities will vary. Natural groundwater discharge at springs and seeps sustains habitat for numerous species, many of which are threatened, endangered, or otherwise considered sensitive. In 2004, the USGS documented a calibrated numerical flow model of the DVRFS (Belcher, 2004). The model, DVRFS v. 1.0, incorporated elements of several precursor numerical models but defined the boundaries of the regional flow system slightly different than in previous versions. The model simulates transient groundwater flow conditions in the DVRFS from 1913 through 1998. The report was subsequently revised and published as a USGS Professional Paper (Belcher and Sweetkind, 2010). Since release of DVRFS v. 1.0 in 2004, continued use of the model by cooperators, stakeholders, and interested parties in the region has demonstrated the need to improve specific aspects (such as the flow into northern Yucca Flat and parts of the Amargosa Desert), to update it with more recently acquired geologic and hydrologic data, and to extend the simulation period.

Analysis of Potential Water-Supply Management Options, 2010-60, and Documentation of Revisions to the Model of the Irwin Basin Aquifer System, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | October 31st, 2014

The Fort Irwin National Training Center is considering several alternatives to manage their limited water-supply sources in the Irwin Basin. An existing three-dimensional

The Fort Irwin National Training Center is considering several alternatives to manage their limited water-supply sources in the Irwin Basin. An existing three-dimensional, finite-difference groundwater-flow model—the U.S. Geological Survey’s MOD-FLOW—of the aquifer system in the basin was updated and the initial input dataset was supplemented with groundwater withdrawal data for the period 2000–10. The updated model was then used to simulate four combinations, or scenarios, of groundwater withdrawal and recharge over the next 50 years (January 2011 through December 2060). The scenarios included combinations of continuing withdrawals from currently active production wells, supplementing any increases in demand with withdrawals from an inactive production well, reducing withdrawal amounts and rates, and reducing the discharge of treated wastewater to infiltration ponds that provide a recharge source to the underlying aquifer. Results of the simulations indicated that, depending on the scenario implemented, groundwater levels would rise (over the next 50 years) from 40 feet to as much as 65 feet in the northwestern part of the Irwin Basin, and from 5 feet to 10 feet in the southeastern part.

Annual Ground-Water Discharge by Evapotranspiration from Areas of Spring-Fed Riparian Vegetation Along the Eastern Margin of Death Valley, 2000–02

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 2006

Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles | December 23rd, 2015

The complaints and cross-complaints in the Action frame many legal issues. The Action includes over 4,000 Parties, as well as the members of the Non-Pumper Class and the

The complaints and cross-complaints in the Action frame many legal issues. The Action includes over 4,000 Parties, as well as the members of the Non-Pumper Class and the members of the Small Pumper Class. The Basin’s entire Groundwater supply and Groundwater rights, extending over approximately 1390 square miles, have been brought to issue. The numerous Groundwater rights at issue in the case include, without limitation, overlying, appropriative, prescriptive, and federal reserved water rights to Groundwater, rights to return flows from Imported Water, rights to recycled water, rights to stored Imported Water subject to the Watermaster rules and regulations, and rights to utilize the storage space within the Basin. After several months of trial, the Court made findings regarding Basin characteristics and determined the Basin’s Safe Yield. The Court’s rulings and judgments in this case, including the Safe Yield determination, form the basis for this Judgment. For annual reports go to the Department of Water Resources Adjudicated Annual Reporting page.

Anthropogenic warming impacts on California snowpack during drought

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | March 15th, 2017

Sierra Nevada climate and snowpack is simulated during the period of extreme drought from 2011 to 2015 and compared to an identical simulation except for the removal of t

Sierra Nevada climate and snowpack is simulated during the period of extreme drought from 2011 to 2015 and compared to an identical simulation except for the removal of the twentieth century anthropogenic warming. Anthropogenic warming reduced average snowpack levels by 25%, with middle‐to‐low elevations experiencing reductions between 26 and 43%. In terms of event frequency, return periods associated with anomalies in 4 year 1 April snow water equivalent are estimated to have doubled, and possibly quadrupled, due to past warming. We also estimate effects of future anthropogenic warmth on snowpack during a drought similar to that of 2011–2015. Further snowpack declines of 60–85% are expected, depending on emissions scenario. The return periods associated with future snowpack levels are estimated to range from millennia to much longer. Therefore, past human emissions of greenhouse gases are already negatively impacting statewide water resources during drought, and much more severe impacts are likely to be inevitable.

Anthropogenic Warming Impacts on Today's Sierra Nevada Snowpack and Flood Risk

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | June 15th, 2018

This study investigates temperature impacts to snowpack and runoff‐driven flood risk over the Sierra Nevada during the extremely wet year of 2016–2017, which followed

This study investigates temperature impacts to snowpack and runoff‐driven flood risk over the Sierra Nevada during the extremely wet year of 2016–2017, which followed the extraordinary California drought of 2011–2015. By perturbing near‐surface temperatures from a 9‐km dynamically downscaled simulation, a series of offline land surface model experiments explore how Sierra Nevada hydrology has already been impacted by historical anthropogenic warming and how these impacts evolve under future warming scenarios. Results show that historical warming reduced 2016–2017 Sierra Nevada snow water equivalent by 20% while increasing early‐season runoff by 30%. An additional one third to two thirds loss of snowpack is projected by the end of the century, depending on the emission scenario, with middle elevations experiencing the most significant declines. Notably, the number of days in the future with runoff exceeding 20 mm nearly doubles under a mitigation emission scenarios and triples under a business‐as‐usual scenario. A smaller snow‐to‐rain ratio, as opposed to increased snowmelt, is found to be the primary mechanism of temperature impacts to Sierra snowpack and runoff. These findings are consequential to the prevalence of early‐season floods in the Sierra Nevada. In the Feather River Watershed, historical warming increased runoff by over one third during the period of heaviest precipitation in February 2017. This suggests that historical anthropogenic warming may have exacerbated runoff conditions underlying the Oroville Dam spillway overflow that occurred in this month. As warming continues in the future, the potential for runoff‐based flood risk may rise even higher.

Appraisal of the water resources of Death Valley, California–Nevada

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | December 1st, 1977

Aquifer Recharge from the 1969 and 1978 Floods in the Mojave River Basin, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | April 15th, 1980